Caution: Slow Children at Playhttps://bschorr.wordpress.com
Ramblings of a KarmakazeSun, 18 Mar 2018 03:58:14 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/d289fbcbb50519a5a29fa4ac4a3b4c3b?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngCaution: Slow Children at Playhttps://bschorr.wordpress.com
My Favorite Part of Coaching, Not.https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/my-favorite-part-of-coaching-not/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/my-favorite-part-of-coaching-not/#respondSun, 27 Sep 2015 16:52:37 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=909Continue reading →]]>As some of you may know I coach high school football in my spare time. Currently I’m the offensive coordinator for one of our local high school Varsity teams and one of my favorite parts of the job (he says, with sarcasm that’s difficult to convey in this medium) is all of the unsolicited advice we get from parents, spectators, sports writers and other people who aren’t football coaches. I’ve even had people stick their heads into the booth DURING THE GAME to offer their pearls of wisdom.

Here’s a selection of some of my favorites.

1. (After a bad defensive game) “Don’t you guys practice tackling?”

Wait…you can PRACTICE tackling? Why didn’t we think of that?!?! Oh, right, we did. Yes, of course we practice tackling. Every day. But tackling is surprisingly hard. The other boys are sportsing hard too and sometimes the other boy is bigger/faster/stronger than we are. That makes him harder to tackle. Sometimes we just made a bad play or have a bad game. Even NFL players miss tackles sometimes so expecting a 15 year old who has played exactly 3 games of tackle football in his life to suddenly be a devastating tackler might be setting your sights a little high.

Rest assured we do practice tackling every day.

2. “Why don’t you throw the ball to your running back more?”

Because he can’t catch. That’s why he’s a running back instead of a receiver. We hand him the ball. I realize that your favorite NFL team kills people by throwing the ball to the running back in the flats. We did too, last year. Maybe we will again next year. The kid we have at running back THIS year is a terrific runner and understands our scheme…but when we throw the ball towards him he acts like we threw him a live badger. He’s on pace for 1000+ yards rushing but nobody’s good at everything – I’m a terrible ice skater.

-or-

2a. “You should run the 3-4 defense like [NFL Team] does!”

That would be hard to do considering we only have 2 linebackers.

And unlike your favorite NFL team we can’t just trade with another school for a RB who can catch and we can’t draft more linebackers. We’ve got the guys we’ve got.

Which brings me to…

3. “How come your players are so [small/slow]?”

I dunno. Maybe you should have mated with a [bigger/faster] guy? There really isn’t a lot we can do to make our players 6’3″, 240 lbs and despite a summer of running they’re not going to go from being Carl Spackler to Carl Lewis in 8 weeks. They either are or they aren’t. We have to take whatever 40, 50 (too often 30) kids who show up and make a football team out of them. If they’re all 5’9″ and 165 lbs then that’s what we’ve got. Welcome to high school football.

4. “Why do you let that kid drop the ball?”

As it turns out I can’t force a kid to catch a football – especially when I’m 30 yards away and the officials frown on me entering the field during a play. We practice it during the week, we try to put him in a good position to catch it, we teach our QBs to throw a catchable ball but when the football meets the hands it’s up to that student-athlete to actually latch onto that football and maintain possession of it.

Same is true of any skill on the field – whether it’s blocking or tackling or throwing or kicking…we get to tell them what to do and how to do it. They get to actually go out there under the lights and either do it or don’t do it.

Naturally a player who doesn’t do it often enough will stop getting opportunities to do it – See #2 or #7.

5. “Why don’t you line up in trips and run the sweep away from the trips?”

Because our guards are too slow on the pull so we don’t have a blocker to account for the overhang linebacker. I get that you see a lot of grass over there and get excited but when we design the offense we really do have to factor in where our players are, what they can do, where their players are likely to be and how we’re going to actually execute the play.

Sending our ball carrier on a play where we’re outnumbered or outflanked isn’t really fundamentally sound and thus would probably qualify as a trick play at best.

Which brings me to…

6. “You should run the double-flea flicker reverse bounce pass! We killed people with that when I was in high school!”

The only person you killed with it was your head coach who held his breath every time that play got called. Because it’s a terrible play and it almost never works.

Trick plays in football serve two purposes and two purposes only:

To surprise the other team by catching them off-guard with something they weren’t expecting and aren’t prepared for. The more exotic the play the less fundamentally sound it probably is and the less often you can get away with running it because exotic plays generally only work when the other team is surprised. It’s a gimmick you can pull out of the bag once in a while when you think the other team isn’t expecting it.

They’re fun. Kids like running them. Fans like watching them. Coaches sometimes think it’s entertaining to pull out a creative play that might actually work occasionally. Nobody puts Spread A Near B4 Lead on YouTube unless something crazy happens. Run Double-Reverse Pass out of the Swinging Gate formation (and by some miracle it actually works) and you’re going to get a lot of views online. But you probably can’t build an offense on it.

The problem with trick plays is that they’re tricky. There are a lot of things that can go wrong, sometimes catastrophically wrong, and they take a lot of precious practice time to get them right. That “Hook and Ladder” you scored on in your flag football days is fun…until the hook guy accidentally pitches the ball onto the turf and the other team scoops it and runs it back for a TD.

Just because you saw some school on YouTube run this awesome trick play doesn’t mean we should devote 30 minutes of precious practice time trying to learn it and praying that it works on Friday night.

-or-

6a. “You should totally run that play where 3 players run into the huddle but 4 players run back to the sideline and one of those players stops right at the edge of the field and pretends he’s out and talking to a coach. The other team doesn’t see him and you throw him the ball!”

Why? How does a 15-yard Illegal Participation penalty help us? It’s illegal in high school football (Rule 9-6-4c) to use a pretended substitution to deceive the opponents. Sometimes we don’t do what fans suggest because we know the rule book better than they do and we understand that we CAN’T legally do that.

7. “Hey that #62 on your team is huge! How come he isn’t starting?”

Because he’s 5’7″ and 330 lbs. He can barely get into his stance and once he’s in it he can’t get out of it. There are very few positions in football that don’t require you to be able to run, at least for short distances.

or the variant of that…

7a. “That #86 is crazy fast? How come you don’t throw the bomb to him?”

Because #62 can’t move his feet so our QB doesn’t have time to throw deep.

-or-

Because our QB can’t throw the ball more than 30 yards – sorry, he’s 14 and neither of his parents are Aaron Rodgers.

-or-

Because even our RB (see #2) catches the ball better than #86 does.

The football is like a one-man cold to Clifford Franklin!

Which brings me to the all-time classic…

8. Why isn’t MY KID starting?!

I get that he was the 3rd best player on his Pee Wee team. But…

He only shows up for practice 1 day a week and we can’t put him out there if he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

-or-

Even though he always catches the Frisbee when you throw it to him at the beach that doesn’t mean he can catch a football, while wearing 15 lbs of football gear, under the lights with other large boys intent on preventing him from doing it.

-or-

The kid starting in front of him, hard as this may be for you to believe, is actually better than he is at football.

Parents aren’t always the most objective evaluators of talent. You love your kids, naturally, you think they’re great kids (and they probably are) and you still remember how proud you were when little Jimmy caught the winning touchdown pass in the Hippo Bowl in 6th grade. At the varsity level, however, there can be a lot of competition for positions and sometimes, just sometimes, little Tommy is bigger/faster/smarter/more talented than little Jimmy is. Even just a little. Hard to believe I know. Imagine how little Bobby’s parents feel – despite always being one of the first 10 picked at the family Turkey Bowl he’s behind little Jimmy on our depth chart.

High School coaches spend a lot of hours – during the season and outside the season – thinking about, evaluating, discussing. re-evaluating and trying to improve their teams. Just ask my wife – I assume that’s who that woman who keeps asking me if I’m ever going to come to the dinner table is – and she’ll tell you how much time goes into this volunteer job. It’s not just Friday nights.

I don’t mean to suggest that we know EVERYTHING or that we’re never wrong. We’re humans, of course we get it wrong occasionally. But football is a far more complicated and nuanced game than most fans appreciate so if we’re not running the play you think we should run or starting the player you think we should start there’s probably a reason for it.

Only three people really understand football and two of them are John Madden.

And no…we’re really not interested in spending 20 minutes arguing with you about it at Pizza Hut after the game.

We appreciate your support but please understand if we often greet your feedback with a slightly impatient smile and then decide not to run the “It’s the wrong ball!” play on 4th and 17 as you implored us to do.

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2015/09/27/my-favorite-part-of-coaching-not/feed/0bschorrThe Rental Drive: 2013 Kia Optima Hybridhttps://bschorr.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/the-rental-drive-2013-kia-optima-hybrid/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/the-rental-drive-2013-kia-optima-hybrid/#respondMon, 04 Nov 2013 01:06:20 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=906Continue reading →]]>I rent a lot of cars in the course of my work, so I though I might make the long hours behind strange wheels more interesting by actually reviewing the cars I drive. More interesting for me anyhow, no promises this will be at all interesting for you.

Off to Wickenburg

So last weekend a client in Wickenburg was having problems and I needed to drive down. It’s about a 2-1/2 hour drive (each way) so I decided to rent a car for the day, rather than put the wear/tear on my car. The nice folks at National Car Rental supplied me with a 2013 Kia Optima Hybrid in “Blue Medium” a color so popular Kia has apparently decided not to offer it on the 2014 Optima Hybrid. Can’t really blame them for that one, the color is really not good. Luckily, the car sort of is.

Interior

The strength of this car is the driving controls. From the breathtaking dashboard that greets you with exciting graphics when you get in the car to the power seats and the ample controls on the steering wheel this is one of the better vehicles I’ve driven in its class.

The center display is extremely configurable and offers a lot of different information sets that it can display for you. It’s pretty easy to display your current gas mileage, the speedometer is easy to read and, once you find it amongst all the blinky stuff, the gas gauge is as well. Some of the available displays on the center screen don’t make a lot of sense. There are a couple of different “Eco Screens” (this being a hybrid and all) which might make more sense if this is your daily driver and you’ve figured them out, but for a one-day rental I tilted my head at them momentarily then moved on to the next screen.

I like having stereo controls and some of the display controls on the steering wheel where they’re easy to use without taking your hands off the wheel and the Kia has one of the most function-packed wheels I’ve seen in the class.

The powered seat was comfortable and visibility from the driver’s seat was not a problem (as it occasionally is in mid-size vehicles).

One thing I especially liked about the Kia was that the aux jack (and a USB port) were located right in the front console where they were easy to use and access. I recently had a VW Jetta rental and as I recall the only Aux jack I could find was inside the center console. Not exactly convenient.

This 2013 Optima Hybrid features keyless ignition. Which means you just have to have the key in the car and press a button to start it. That’s a nifty feature though it tripped me up once or twice. At a rest stop I got out of the car to use the restroom and took the key with me. The car, being a hybrid, was so quiet though I’d forgotten it was still on. It made a long quiet beep at me to warn me that the key had left the running vehicle…and once I realized the problem it was trivial to get back in and push the “Engine Off” button.

Later however I was at a gas station, had shut the car off and gotten out with the key…but the car insisted upon giving me the same low beep. I never did figure that one out, even after starting and stopping the engine a couple of times.

Driving

So the interior is pretty good…how is it to drive? It’s good, but not brilliant, actually. My biggest complaint with it would be the ride. For a midsize sedan it was awfully busy/choppy. I’m not sure I’d want it as my daily driver unless I lived somewhere with extremely smooth roads.

My other complaint is that occasionally, at low speeds, the automatic transmission would make a particularly harsh shift and you could actually feel it slamming into the next gear.

Once you got to highway speeds it was fine. The cruise control was sort of unremarkable – I have to say that I missed the digital readout of the Chevy Cruze that told you exactly what speed you had the cruise control set to, so if you wanted it at 74 it was easy to set it there. The analog imprecision of the Kia felt like a bit of a step back. But it held speed well and the engine never felt like it was having to work too hard to maintain speed.

Gas mileage was fine as well, this particular trip was a lot of highway driving, so not exactly the strength of the hybrid, but it managed to average about 34MPG even though there was a fair bit of elevation change on the drive and the Optima is a fairly solid-feeling sedan – no lightweight Prius here.

TIP: If you want to improve performance – especially when accelerating on a highway on-ramp, turn off the ECO mode with the handy steering wheel button. When I did so coming out of Carefree it felt like a turbocharger had kicked in – the improvement was immediate and dramatic. I turned ECO back on once I reached 65.

Handling was fine – not terribly exciting or disappointing, but it’s a Kia hybrid, not a Porsche 911.

I didn’t do any especially hard braking, but overall I felt like the braking was quite good. It felt smooth, controlled and level all the way.

Looks

Have to say, picking up the car in the morning I was a bit put off by the color which I can only describe as sort of a charcoal blue/purple. As I noted above it appears Kia has discontinued this color and that’s probably a good call. That said when I dropped the car off at night I had to admit the color looked a lot better in the dark. I can’t fault it there, I look a lot better in the dark too.

It’s not desperately pretty though. Not as boring as the late model VW Jetta’s but nowhere near as pretty as the Ford Fusion.

Conclusion

The Ford Fusion is still my favorite vehicle in National’s mid-size fleet. The conventionally powered Kia Optima is a nice drive and the hybrid variant is right there with it. The Chevy Cruze I had a couple of weeks ago was a pleasant surprise and I think those three vehicles are my top 3 in the class right now.

At the end of the day I’m mostly about driver experience, comfort and controls. I don’t care that the Kia isn’t very pretty. I wish the ride were a little more comfortable, but otherwise I’d be fine with driving it again.

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2013/11/03/the-rental-drive-2013-kia-optima-hybrid/feed/0bschorrStarting 2013 on the Runhttps://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/starting-2013-on-the-run/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/starting-2013-on-the-run/#respondMon, 10 Dec 2012 20:35:23 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=905Continue reading →]]>So…after a relatively relaxed 2012 (if two marathons and a half can be considered relaxed) I’m going to start 2013 with a bit more aggressive a schedule: 2 marathons in 14 days.

On January 20th I’ll be doing the P.F. Chang’s full marathon and on February 2nd it looks like I’ll be doing the Desert Classic full.

So…what’s the plan? I’m in no condition to go out and race them fast – I’ve only recently returned to pretty steady running and working out. And I’m definitely not in shape to try and race Chang’s and then come back and do another 14 days later.

So…I’m just going to cruise them. The current plan is to try and keep the pace between 12:45 and 13:00 and just keep it easy. If that goes well, and I feel strong, I may try to push the pace a little more aggressively in the 2nd half of the Desert Classic.

1. Is it really necessary to say “An unknown shooter took out a gun and opened fire,” If he’s a shooter and he’s “opening fire” I think we can assume he’s got a gun.

2. I love how some of the gossip sites and mags love to run specials like “Newly Single Celebs!” It’s important to know which “celebrities” (most of whom I’ve never heard of) are single because, you know…you might have a shot with one of them.

3. Speaking of celebrities, I love how they let celebrities out of jail just days our hours into their sentence and claim “Overcrowding” as the reason. Seriously? They aren’t putting Lindsay Lohan into general population – she’s got the special “VIP wing” at the jail. How crowded could it be? Is Paris Hilton in there hogging the bed? If it really is an overcrowding issue why is it the rich celebrity girl who gets kicked loose after 84 minutes in jail and not the inner-city girl who got arrested for the same crime but has been there a week?

4. There was a certain irony to having to pick up littered pieces of paper that said “Friends of Flagstaff’s Future” on them after yesterday’s 4th of July Parade. Hopefully Flagstaff’s future includes people who can find a trash can for those bits they wish to discard.

5. We got a dog. Or he got us; not sure. His name is Sam and we adopted him from a rescue place in Scottsdale after meeting him at the “Pets in the Pines” event here in Flagstaff. So far I can say he has the sweetest disposition. He’s very affectionate and playful. He rarely barks and has taken to some simple commands like Sit, and occasionally Stay, pretty well. Seems likely that whomever his previous people were they did do some training with him before he separated from them.

The folks from the rescue farm (http://www.fedwellfarm.com/) said he was on the “Euthanize List” at the nearby pound when they found him and took him in – just hours before he was to be put down. We’re awfully glad they saved him (though our cats aren’t so sure yet) because he’s been a wonderful addition to our family.

6. We’re on the verge of “cutting the cable”. We’ve just ordered a “Rikomagic MK802” which is a tiny Android/Linux computer which we can connect to our TV and our wireless Internet and use to stream media, movies, TV, music and more. Once we have it working and are happy with what it offers us we’re going to disconnect our “DirectTV”. Turns out the cost of the MK802 is about the same as one month of DirectTV and the reality is…we don’t watch that much television. We’ve discovered that nearly every show we watch is already available, sometimes on a slight delay, via the Internet. We have NetFlix, we have Amazon Prime, we can go to Hulu and these days pretty much every TV station (HGTV, Bravo, NBC, etc) has their own websites where they stream episodes of their shows.

So…we’re going to give it a try. If it works out the way we hope, we’ll save several hundred dollars a year.

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/happy-5th-of-july/feed/0bschorrSam in the carSan Diego Marathon 2012https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/san-diego-marathon-2012/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/san-diego-marathon-2012/#respondMon, 11 Jun 2012 01:17:08 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=896Continue reading →]]>Quick recap of last week’s San Diego Marathon. I’d done San Diego twice before but that was on the old course. A year or two ago they changed the course so that it now ends at Sea World instead of the Marine Recruit Depot so this was my first go at the new course.

Pre-Race

Carrie and I drove over to L.A. on Thursday and spent the evening with my parents. We had a lovely dinner (pasta, of course) at Giovanni Ristorante and a good night-sleep. The next day we did a little relaxing in L.A. before getting a slightly later-than-planned start for San Diego in the mid-afternoon.

I’m not sure the departure time made any difference but the drive to SD, which has always taken me 2-1/2 hours or so in the past, was so beset with congestion and traffic that it took nearly 4 hours that day. A lesson for the future I guess – don’t take that drive for granted and be sure to leave yourself plenty of time.

Arriving in San Diego we got checked in at the Ramada Plaza hotel. I picked the Ramada because it was fairly inexpensive and just minutes from the Sports Arena where we’d be parking.

My 30 second review of the Ramada? It’s an older property that clearly has seen some hard days. Some elements of it seem fresh and I want to think they’re slowly renovating it back to top condition. But I suspect they’re a few housekeepers short and some of the common areas look…well, pretty common.

That said the room was fairly comfortable and it was clean. Parking was free and easy, the hot tub works (even though it was overflowing a bit), the typical hotel breakfast (waffles, muffins, toast, yogurt, juice) was free and about as expected.

Internet WiFi in the rooms was free and steady.

We had very few interactions with the staff – not even sure most of the staff we encountered spoke English – which was fine because we rarely needed them after check-in.

One caution: even though some of the websites imply the rooms have refrigerators (and/or microwaves) in them NOT all of them do. If you really want a fridge or a microwave you need to request it – and you probably should do that BEFORE you arrive. We got there, discovered our room had neither and called down to the desk. They said they were all out of fridges. Lesson learned.

All in all I guess the Ramada is good value for money – it’s a bargain property at a bargain price.

A light dinner, then off to bed.

The next day we started off at the San Diego Marathon Expo. I’ve done 15 full marathons now and a bunch of triathlons and half-marathons. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m something of a connoisseur of race expos and I have to say that the 2012 San Diego expo is the best one I’ve ever been to. It was large, vibrant, full of interesting and relevant vendors and everywhere you looked were endurance sport celebrities!

We got to watch 4-time Ironman World Champ Chrissie Wellington being interviewed by Bob Babbitt then, on the way back from a restroom stop, I spotted Olympic marathoner Meb Keflezighi. I probably could have spent all day there, but I was getting hungry and my shoulder was starting to hurt from getting jostled by the crowds.

A late lunch at Souplantation and then it was back to the hotel to relax.

Marathon Tip: As always, lay out all of your gear the night before. I like to lay mine out as if it were a person, of sorts. Race hat over race sunglasses, over race shirt, over race shorts, sock in each shoe…race number on the race belt around the “waist” etc. That way I can look it over and more easily spot if something’s missing. Sunscreen, race nutrition, watch…watch…watch?

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? Does Anybody Really Care?

One thing I did for the first time in this race (clarify: I’ve done it in training plenty, but never in a race) is that I didn’t bother wearing a watch. Truth is, I didn’t care what my time was. I was just going to run and enjoy. How did that work out? Stay tuned…

Race Morning

Race morning the alarm went off at 3:25 and we got ourselves dressed and ready to go. By 4:05 we were on the road heading to the Sports Arena, where race parking was. We encountered very light traffic (in fact, practically none compared to what I’ve seen at some races) and were directed to a convenient (and free) parking spot.

I have to admit, I was worried about the logistics of this race. There’s no parking at the start and only “VIP” (read: $$$) parking at the finish. They were encouraging everybody to use public transport or shuttles to get where they needed to go. Turns out my concerns were unfounded. The shuttles were plentiful, comfortable and timely. We had nary a wait or a queue on either end. Parking at the Sports Arena was easy and (as above) extremely convenient to our hotel.

There was even a handy In-n-Out Burger between the Sports Arena and the hotel for the post-race feast.

O.K., enough Double-Double talk for now…back to the race. The shuttle dropped us off at Balboa park and we made use of a porta potty (with a relatively short line) then found a spot to relax and wait for the start.

Race morning weather was PERFECT…barely 60 degrees and overcast with a bit of a breeze.

Pre-start I managed two MORE porta-potty visits…the first one ~30 minutes pre-gun featured a typical EPIC San Diego Marathon porta-line. I think it was close to 45 minutes in the line. The second, was wiser. As they sent the corrals off one-by-one, the porta lines emptied out. Everybody rushed to get into the race…and that meant practically no wait at all for a porta just near the start line.

I still made my corral in plenty of time to cross the start.

I’d like to thank Team in Training for letting us participate in their race. I’m half-kidding, but it’s clearly TnT’s (glad they opted for that acronym, rather than the more obvious one) A-race of the season as there was a LOT of purple on the course. And a lot of TnT coaches and support crew along the course cheering and supporting.

Good job Team!

Meet the New Course, Same as the Old Course?

I have to say, at first glance I didn’t notice a lot of big differences between the two courses for the first 15 miles or so.

The course winds through Balboa Park which is a pretty cool section of the race. At one point we ran past a giant pipe organ with an organist playing for us as we ran past! From there we went past the zoo, wound through the business district and then past Petco field where the Padres sort of play. So far pretty much the same as before (though we went around Petco on the other side before).

Unfortunately miles 8-10 are still that tough slog up the 163 freeway. It’s a long gradual climb on a cambered road and if the day is hot (which mercifully our day wasn’t) it can be pretty tough. As it was, I was glad to get to the summit of that section and put it behind me.

Right about there we found ourselves parallel to the half-marathoners and I was scanning the crowd for a beautiful girl in a purple shirt (my girl loves purple!). Sure enough, a mile or so down the road there she was! She actually saw me before I saw her but I scampered over to where she was and we walked together for a little bit. My favorite part of the race!

Finally we had to say goodbye though as our courses were going to split again and I needed to get back to running the fairly familiar course. I stole one last kiss and headed off with the rest of the full marathon crowd.

Miles 15-18 or so are long Morena Blvd. At that point my pace had dropped quite a bit so it felt like a bit of a trudge. I can sense that if I were trying to race this event I’d want to approach that section as a particular mental challenge – to feel strong all the way to the turn at Milton.

One reason to run a little faster than I did…Denver Street (just shy of Mile Marker 19) is famous for the residents coming out with trays of oranges and other snacks for the runners. By the time I trotted through though they were mostly packed up.

Once we got past Denver Street and dropped down into the park the course change became more apparent. No more lap of Mission Bay. The last 5 or 6 miles now are an out and back of sorts along a bike path, then a lap around Fiesta Island before wrapping up in one of the outer parking lots at Sea World.

From 19 to 23 you’re running along Mission Bay in the beach park. It’s actually a fairly nice stretch, though most of it is on a concrete bike path. I found myself wishing I was a little stronger at that point.

The Fiesta Island lap is a tough one – that’s basically miles 23-25 – and if you’re not familiar with the area (like I’m not) and didn’t study the course map (like I didn’t) you’re not really sure how long it actually is going in. It’s not too hilly and, thanks to the cloud cover, wasn’t too hot, but the wind had started to pick up a bit and for some reason seemed to be in our faces no matter what direction we were going. I even made a half-kidding effort to draft off another runner for a few yards, but she was too small to provide much of a draft.

Around mile 23.5 I picked up a companion of sorts. Some fellow with a bicycle who decided to walk alongside me and tell me his life story. He was apparently waiting for his girlfriend who was somewhere back behind me in the field. He walked more or less with me until the 24 mile marker then said he’d wait there. Seemed like a nice fellow – I hope his girlfriend did well.

Approaching the 25 mile marker I didn’t really know what my time was (I wasn’t wearing a watch, remember?) but I started to wonder if I might have a chance to sneak under 6 hours. I’d always planned to run the best I could in the final mile (“Last mile best mile!”) though at that point I didn’t really have a lot of speed left. I was already in the place where you’re making deals with yourself (“O.k., I’ll run to the next trash can, then I can walk to the trash can after that, then run to the trash can after that…”) so it didn’t bode well for a blazing finish.

Nonetheless as I lumbered past the 25 mile marker l took a deep breath and increased my pace to the extent I could. The last mile is actually pretty nice, though a little up and down (more up than down) and the finish chutes seem almost anticlimactic.

If you’re looking for energized cheering crowds the San Diego Marathon is probably not the best example. They’re nice enough, but by comparison to some other races like L.A. or especially New York, they’re pretty sparse. You go some long stretches where you might see a handful of people – some of whom are just walking their dogs. The finish chutes at San Diego are sort of that way too – though maybe they were more charged up for the faster finishers. By the time I got there the crowd numbered a hundred or so I guess and they seemed to mostly be waiting for specific people – and I wasn’t that person.

The volunteers are terrific…but the spectators, well, they seemed a little more comparable to a golf crowd than a race. That’s o.k.

Finally I crossed the line. Pleased to be there, anxious for some food, looking forward to reuniting with my girl, still no idea what my time was, and ready for some In-n-Out. Another reason to finish faster than I did…a lot of the finish area tables were broken down already. Two slightly-perplexed teenagers were passing out water bottles and there was an unattended box of bagels on a side table. Somebody handed me a finisher’s medal, I passed up a few offerings of fruit, gratefully accepted a small bag of chips, and gave my girl a great big hug.

The post-race shuttle worked as well as the pre-race shuttle did and we were quickly back to our car and off for a rendezvous with a Double-Double….

Wrap Up

A few random thoughts to wrap it up…

My final time turned out to be 6:11 and some seconds. A little slower than either of my previous two efforts at San Diego (though not by a lot) but in both of those races I had a watch and a race plan and a pace and I was working hard to hit a goal time. I Gump’d this race and just went out to enjoy it…which I did, very much. If I want to go faster in my next race the formula is no great mystery:

1. I need to drop about 15 pounds or so. I’m a little soft right now and carrying the extra weight is NOT helping.

2. I need to do a better job of my training, especially on long runs. I felt pretty good (and was on a decent pace) for the first half – especially considering the slog up the freeway from 8-10. But I just didn’t have the legs to push much of a pace from miles 17 to 25.

I really think that if I’d come into this race at my Ironman Texas race weight and with a few more 15-20 mile runs in my recent training that I could have easily cut 30 minutes off my time without a lot of effort.

Carrie did great. Even though she barely trained she finished within a minute or two of her Sedona Half-Marathon time and did so without really jogging any of it. “After doing a marathon a half-marathon seems a lot easier” she commented afterwards. Yep.

I never really felt great in this race but I never really felt awful either. Right from the start I felt a little heavy/sluggish and my shoulder got progressively more sore throughout the day (though never really agonizing). For a fair bit of the race I had on-again/off-again pains in either knee – something I’ve had very little of since changing my stride to more of a mid-foot strike. I attribute the extra knee pain to the extra weight I’m carrying right now. None of those injuries slowed me too much and a DNF was never a question. That said I did take 3 Aleve throughout the day…which undoubtedly helped.

Aid stations are reasonably plentiful on the course, though I did find myself wishing that they had Gatorade at all of them instead of just every other.

The bands along the course were pretty good – though as usual late in the race it was getting late in the day and the stages were often either empty or just playing recorded music. Didn’t matter too much to me, I’d brought headphones and was listening to Pandora between stages.

The day after the race Carrie and I spent the day at Sea World. Part of our race entry was free admission to Sea World so we took advantage. It was a fun day, we got to pet the dolphins, and saw a lot of neat shows. Neither of us had been to Sea World in probably two decades and it’s changed a lot since my last visit certainly. Unfortunately my still-injured shoulder kept me off the roller coasters.

Carrie and I have already been talking about our next race. Maybe the half-marathon in Las Vegas on December 2nd, though the entry fee is pretty steep for a half-marathon. I’d like to do the full marathon but the time limit is 4:30 and I’d really have to train hard and race hard to have any chance to get close to that. I just don’t think I want to work that hard right now. The race after that would certainly be P.F. Chang’s Marathon (and half for Carrie) in Phoenix in January.

We’ve talked about returning to do San Diego again next year. The one thing that’s giving me pause about that idea is all of the driving. It was 7 hours or so to L.A. Then four down to San Diego. Then 8-1/2 probably to get from San Diego back up to Flagstaff. Good thing we spread it out over 4-5 days but even so that was a lot of time in the car. We might consider driving down to Phoenix and flying to SD from there…that might not be much faster or cheaper but at least it might cut our driving down to a more manageable 5 hours instead of 20.

I’d forgotten how much I like Souplantation. Wish we had one in Flagstaff.

I’ve already resumed running a bit and getting back to the gym. The running is to recover my legs and shed a few pounds; the gym is to try and rehab my shoulder. Looking ahead, even though at this point I don’t plan to wear a watch in my next race either, I would like to be in a little better shape for the next race. I’d like to be a little more comfortable in the later miles and maybe finish while more of the food is still at the finish line.

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/06/10/san-diego-marathon-2012/feed/0bschorrSmileSmileSan Diego Marathon This Sundayhttps://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/san-diego-marathon-this-sunday/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/san-diego-marathon-this-sunday/#respondTue, 29 May 2012 15:56:44 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=893Continue reading →]]>On Thursday Carrie and I are going to head out to San Diego, with a too-brief stop in L.A. to visit my parents. (Hi Mom!) The headline of the trip is the San Diego Marathon next Sunday. I’m going to do the full while Carrie does the half and I’ve decided I’m going to do something I’ve never done in a race before…

…I’m not going to wear a watch. Yep, I’m going to run entirely on feeling.

It’s interesting how your approach to races changes when you’re A) Sure you can finish and B) Not really concerned with your time. Other than being aware of not going out too hard at the start I really don’t care what my pace is. If I feel good and I’m having fun I’ll run hard. If I want to slow down, I will. If I feel like walking a bit, I will. Maybe I’ll stop and take a photo or three along the way. The finish time will be whatever it is. Could be 5. Could be 7.

Either way, it’ll be fun!

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/san-diego-marathon-this-sunday/feed/0bschorrRunning Is Like a Box of Chocolateshttps://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/running-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/running-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates/#respondTue, 27 Mar 2012 01:47:15 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=889Continue reading →]]>I Forrest-Gumped the L.A. Marathon last weekend. Not exactly in a “Run Forrest Run!” kinda way more like in a “When I felt like running, I ran. When I felt like walking, I walked. When I had to go….well…I went.” sort of way.

Let me explain…

Last year I did L.A. Marathon. Despite coming off an illness I wasn’t in bad shape, tuning up for Ironman Texas, and had high hopes for not only a new personal record (PR) but I planned to destroy my old PR. L.A. Marathon is a generally fast course, I was in shape, motivated, ready.

But mother nature had other plans.

The first 4 miles last year went very well. Other than an unplanned porta-potty stop that cost me some time I was running pretty well. Then around mile 4 the skies opened up. As one friend described it…it started off torrential and escalated to biblical. For the next 22.2 miles it got steadily worse. Cold. Wet. Pouring rain. Ankle-deep water in some places. You’ve heard the story.

Despite the weather I really liked the course so I wanted to give it another go. At my first opportunity I signed up for the 2012 L.A. Marathon. I figured in good weather I’d finally be able to rip off a fast (for me) race.

Last May I did Ironman Texas. In November I did Ironman Arizona. Somewhere between those two my enthusiasm for endurance sport decided to try a new training method by walking a mile every day…by September I had no idea where it was.

The winter didn’t bring much improvement and by a month before L.A. Marathon I realized that there was no way I was going to race it. I just wasn’t in shape for that. At that point I decided I’d just Gump it. I debated whether I’d even bother wearing a watch (Ultimately I did, but never calculated my pace). Run for fun, enjoy it, take in the sights, thank the volunteers…and, BONUS, my girl was going to do her first marathon that day too!

Déjà vu

In the days before the race I was checking the weather forecast, like ya do, and saw something that sent a chill down my spine and an unpleasant word out of my mouth: Rain. In fact the forecast called for rain in L.A. all weekend. Not again!

I checked it again every day as the race got closer and every day the same…rain forecast for the weekend. Sad Ben.

Travellin’ Man (and Woman)

So the first issue we had to deal with was how to get to the race – or more to the point – how to get home. Unfortunately the race is held on a Sunday and even more unfortunately Carrie had to teach the next morning. If she was teaching at USC that wouldn’t have been a problem but since she teaches at Northern Arizona University…it meant we were going to have to head for home directly after the race.

That would be bad enough on a plane but since we were driving to and from the race it meant a 7-hour car ride immediately after finishing a marathon. Hmm. O.k., I’ve done Ironman I can do this.

But mother nature again had other ideas…as the days went on the forecasts were calling for a pretty big snowstorm to arrive in Northern Arizona…just before we were supposed to. We were starting to worry about if we’d be able to get home at all on Sunday. Contingencies like “Stopping at a hotel in Kingman Sunday night then pressing on very early Monday morning and hoping the roads are open” came into play.

The drive to L.A. was uneventful enough – other than having to pass my beloved In-n-Out Burger because I wasn’t going to eat that in the days before a race.

The Lead Up

Thursday night we got into L.A. and met friends for dinner at Buca Di Beppo – a little nice pasta and a bit of a reunion. My high school buddy Jeff Holt joined us for dinner. He was taller, far more more athletic and handsome than I was in high school and…I’m chagrined to report…he still is. Nice guy anyhow and it was good to see him.

Friday we went to the expo at Dodger Stadium – a rare outdoor expo – and we got there just ahead of the weather. L.A. has a pretty good expo. Packet pickup is painless and quick and they have quite a few booths. Not sure the people who went on Saturday felt that way though as the promised rain storm arrived and dumped all over the city.

In the car on Saturday one radio news weather guy said of Sunday’s Marathon that it was going to be “Cold, wet and generally unpleasant for everybody.” Great.

E-mails started to arrive from the race organizers detailing their cold/wet contingency plans. Warming buses, heat blankets, towels for drying off. All signs were point to a repeat of the year before.

There was one bit of good news though…the anticipated winter storm had in fact started to arrive in Flagstaff and Northern Arizona University, knowing that faculty and students would be returning from Spring Break, wisely decided to cancel classes for Monday so that people wouldn’t be trying to rush back to Flagstaff in the middle of a dangerous winter storm. Smart move. And it meant we didn’t have to drive back Sunday night. Carrie’s next classes wouldn’t be until Wednesday so though we’d like to try and get back sometime Monday, we could hold out until Tuesday if we had to.

Race Morning

Woke up on the morning of the race, got dressed and gathered our stuff. We opted to take the freeways to our reserved parking at the finish line in Santa Monica rather than the canyon route. Bad weather makes the canyon route unpredictable (and a little treacherous) so even though the freeways were a bit more circuitous (and not as scenic) they were safer and probably faster.

So far, no rain.

Got the car parked, found a porta-potty and our shuttle bus. The ride to Dodger Stadium was interesting in two respects:

1. No rain (so far)

2. When we got off the freeway near Dodger Stadium the bus we were following apparently had no idea how to actually get to Dodger Stadium. We got a nice tour of the surrounding neighborhoods and one false alarm when we tried to enter Dodger Stadium through the wrong gate. Eventually…we got there.

Where’s Vin?

I’ve said before…L.A. Marathon has one of the nicest pre-race waiting facilities around. Dodger Stadium is open for us and we can plop ourselves down in some prime seats on the 3rd base side of home plate! Comfortable, covered, and the stadium restrooms are open too!

TIP: (Just for you fellas, sorry ladies) The lines for the stadium restrooms look epic. But in the Men’s Room the lines are ONLY for the stalls. If you just need a urinal walk right past the line and on into the bathroom. Every bathroom I went into had dozens of unoccupied urinals waiting to be used. We tried to pass word down the line that guys who only needed a urinal should head on in but still…I’m sure many waited in line needlessly.

At 7AM we all started to make our way out to the parking lot where the race start was. The skies were grey and overcast but so far…no rain. I wasn’t getting too excited though – that’s exactly how it started last year too and 4 miles later we were drenched.

TIP: (for everybody, this time) When you exit the stadium the start line queue is directly in front of you. The pods to drop off your gear bags are to the right and beyond those pods are rows of porta-potties. At 7:15AM there are NO lines for those portas. You’ll be able to walk over, and walk right into one no problem and no waiting.

They sang the National Anthem (quite well) and at 7:24 we were off! Well…that’s not exactly true. At 7:24AM the gun went off, Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” started blaring through the speakers and we moved forward several inches. It turns out that “I Love L.A.” is about a 3 minute song. I know this because about 3 minutes after it started, it finished…and started again. We, on the other hand, really hadn’t started yet…still waiting for the crowd to move.

We actually got to hear “I Love L.A.” no fewer than FIVE times before we finally were able to make our move to the starting line.

And Away We Go!

I kissed my girl one last time and took off running. For the next 23 miles I Gump’d it. When I felt like running, I ran. Sometimes I ran pretty fast. Other times I ran pretty slow. Occasionally I walked (mostly at aid stations). If I felt like stopping at a porta potty, I did. Otherwise it was basically just one big fartlek run for me.

Seen on the Course: A sign that read “Who Fartlek’d?”

And I was having a grand time! I chatted with other runners, thanked lots of volunteers, looked at the trees, looked at the buildings, listened to the bands and music, high-fived lots of little kids.

My nutrition plan was working pretty well, I was taking in fluids at the aid stations and I was basically cruising. I could feel my lack of training in my legs, but since I wasn’t pushing too hard it was fine. I came through the halfway mark in just over 3 hours. I was vaguely disappointed in that, had thought I might be a little faster, but my liberal use of the porta-potties along the way and lack of a definite pacing plan had taken its toll.

Turns out I was fine with that.

Hollywood Blvd. Sunset Boulevard. The course was a tad hillier than I remembered it being but still….through Beverly Hills, enjoying the crowds, through Century City and feeling more comfortable than last year. Best of all…not a drop of rain.

Through the VA Hospital grounds and still feeling pretty good I settled in for the last 10K on the long residential street down to Ocean Blvd. My plan of just doing what I wanted and having fun was working well. At mile 23 I decided that what would be really fun would be finishing with my girl. So…

…I stopped. Just stepped off the course onto the grassy median, and turned into a spectator for a while. I had the tracking on my phone to tell me that she’d passed the 30K mark about 15 minutes before that so I figured I had an hour or so to wait. No problem. I chatted with some spectators, cheered on passing runners and anxiously scanned the crowd for pretty girls in purple shirts with beige visors on.

And then right about when I expected her…there she was! Walking along at a nice clip with another lady (whose name was Bryn I learned). I ran out to greet her and took up pace right alongside. She seemed happy to see me.

WHOOSH!

We never did get a drop of rain but at some point in that last hour or so the winds came up so fiercely that the course marshals had to start dismantling some of the mile arches. In fact the arch for mile 24 blew down (pulling several 50 gallon water barrels with it) right in front of us. 20 seconds later and it would have come down on our heads. We opted to go around it while course officials ran into the street and tried to wrestle it under control.

Bryn eventually excused herself and went on to finish and my girl and I did the last 5K of the race together, holding hands most of the way.

Our final time was 7:52 something I think. Correction: My beautiful wife has informed me that our actual time was 7:37:51. The slowest marathon I’ve ever done as it turns out. And also one of the most enjoyable.

It was Carrie’s first marathon and though she said she prefers half-marathons she hasn’t ruled out maybe doing another one some day. She really did great and I’m so proud of her!

Last notes….

As always thanks to the many folks who offered support and encouragement including:

Jay, Lisa and their kids

Lora who looked after our kittens while we were away

Jana

Jeff

Thanks to my parents for their wonderful hospitality as always!

L.A. was my 14th marathon (not counting the two Ironmans). I don’t think it will be my last.

Yes, as is the tradition, we did get In-n-Out Burger after the race.

Jeff crushed it…finishing in 4-low. Nice!

Yes, I’m back to running and training a bit more consistently now. Actually giving some thought to what my next race might be…

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/running-is-like-a-box-of-chocolates/feed/0bschorrO.K. L.A. Let’s Do It Againhttps://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/o-k-l-a-lets-do-it-again/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/o-k-l-a-lets-do-it-again/#respondFri, 16 Mar 2012 05:19:50 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/?p=800Back in L.A. to give the L.A. Marathon another shot. And…like last year, somebody it looks like it could be a wet one.

Well, as they say around here, “Take 2”

]]>https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/o-k-l-a-lets-do-it-again/feed/0bschorrHere we go…https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/here-we-go/
https://bschorr.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/here-we-go/#commentsSun, 13 Nov 2011 00:30:44 +0000http://bschorr.wordpress.com/2011/11/12/here-we-go/Continue reading →]]>Well, it’s race week. One week from tomorrow (Sunday) I’ll be sliding into the water with 2500 of my closest friends to race Ironman Arizona. How am I expected to do? Well, I’m hoping to go sub-10, finish in the top 3 in my age group and qualify for Kona.

Wait.

No, that’s not right.

Actually I’m hoping to not be found face down by the side of the course. My training since Ironman Texas has been amazing. Amazingly bad. I have a lot of excuses – work has been very busy, things at home taking priority, dog ate my homework…but ultimately what it comes down to is that I’ve struggled with my motivation. And the fact that we don’t have a dog. It’s just been very difficult to get myself out the door to train on a consistent basis and that’s nobody’s fault but mine.

“I’m not undertrained, I’m overtapered.”

As if to reward me for my mediocre (at best) training efforts a couple of weeks ago I caught a nasty cold. So just when I started to gain a little momentum and think about trying to get at least a little training in before race day I’ve been spending my days coughing up gook. I believe that’s the medical term for it.

So…time for some reality. What’s the Ironman Arizona plan knowing what I know about where I am now?

Well, I’m actually starting to feel somewhat better – just in time. I got on the bike trainer for a little bit today (after I moved the clothes that were hanging on it and blew the dust off the seat) (just kidding) (sort of kidding) and actually felt pretty good. It’s way too late to do any real training but I should be able to get some easy rides/runs in this week just to get the legs loose in advance of race day.

I have one enormous advantage and that is that I have very modest goals. Even if I were well-trained my “Big” goal was going to be going sub-16 hours. Not exactly a charge at the course record. My time at Ironman Texas was a 16:21:27 and that was on a sprained ankle, in the Houston heat and on a course that is reported to be tougher than the IM Arizona course (not that any Ironman course can be said to be “easy” exactly). So next week my goals are as follows:

Finish. That’s a big one.

PR. It’s possible. Other than my training everything else seems to be in my favor. (“Other than that, how’d you like the play Mrs. Lincoln?”)

Go sub-16 hours. Maybe. I’ll know where I am with this when I get off the bike. If I get off the bike in under 9 hours (total time) I’ve got a great shot at sub-16. If I get off the bike 80 miles into the ride…well…

So you’ve heard about the negatives, what’s in my favor?

Experience. Sounds odd to say that when I’ve only done one other Ironman, but I’ve done three of the 70.3 races, I’ve coached folks in endurance sport, I spend a lot of time talking, reading and listening about triathlon and endurance sport. Does that make me an expert? No, certainly not. But I have a calm confidence going into this race that I know pretty much what to expect. And, again, very modest goals.

Attitude. I’m not out there expecting to Kona qualify or to beat anybody. I’m going out there to soak in the experience, enjoy the day, thank a lot of volunteers and have a lot of fun. At Ironman Texas I met some great folks, especially on the run course, and I expect Ironman Arizona will be more of the same. I’ll meet some neat folks and it’ll be a fun day. Along the way I hope I can beat my time at Texas and it would be great if I could manage to get under 16 hours.

Geography. I don’t have to fly to this race with all of the logistical challenges that entails. In fact, it’s the first time I’ve EVER done an Ironman race where I can just put my bike in the back of my own car and drive to the race venue. Yes, we’re going to stay down in Phoenix for 3 days – Ironman isn’t a show-up and race kinda deal. There are meetings, check-ins, dinners, practice swims, etc. in the days leading up. But the day after the race I’ll load my aching body back into my truck and drive the 2-1/2 hours home. Same time zone, same state. That’s a lot less to worry about.

Basic fitness. For all of my lack of training I have to remember that I did Ironman Texas just ~180 days ago. And I did that on a sprained ankle (did I mention that?) and with a lot of uncertainty as to whether I could even finish it!

Health. I’m getting better every day. By Tuesday I could be 100% healthy. And while I’m undertrained it also means that I’m well rested. I don’t have to taper since I never really got to the fatigued training state that we’re always trying to come down off of before race day. So I’ll be fresh and even anxious to get on the course.

Weather. IM Texas topped 90 degrees during the day and approached 90% humidity. Humidity shouldn’t be an issue in Phoenix and the current forecast is for high temps of 73 with a low of 55. Sounds pretty manageable.

So…what’s the plan?

Pre-Race

Carrie and I are going to drive down to Phoenix on Friday morning. I’ll get checked in at the race area and do a short bike ride and run. Very short. That night is the Welcome Dinner and the mandatory athlete’s meeting both of which I plan to attend.

That night we’re staying with friends in Phoenix. Before bed at their house I’ll make sure I have all of my gear laid out and ready to go. Hopefully there won’t need to be any last-minute Sports Authority runs.

On Saturday morning there’s a practice swim at the race venue and I definitely need to do that because I’ve spent very very little time in my new wetsuit. So I’ll probably do an easy 30-45 minute swim on the course. Then another easy ride, on the course, and a short easy run. I’ll check Keira in at the bike check-in and then head over to the hotel (we’re staying at a hotel Saturday night so as not to disturb our friends) to get off my feet and rest up for Sunday.

Saturday evening I’ll get my sandwiches ready for the special needs bags and make sure my water bottles are ready with Spiz my preferred race drink.

Race Morning

We’ll head down to the swim start – unfortunately in separate cars (more on that soon) – I’ll make my last check on Keira in the bike transition, get my wetsuit on and try to relax. Naturally a Red Bull is part of my pre-race nutrition.

The Swim

When it’s time to get into the water I’ll do my usual, linger and try to find a spot near the back. I’m a slow swimmer and don’t care to trade elbows with people. You speedsters go ahead, I’ll stay back here and find some clear water. If I’m lucky I’ll find some feet to follow – I did manage just a little bit of drafting at IM Texas – but if not that’s o.k.

Advantage: This will be a wetsuit swim and that should help me in several ways. First off wetsuits are just faster. Second one of my issues in the swim has always been nerves related to just not being a great swimmer. The buoyancy offered by the wetsuit should give me a lot more confidence. At IM Texas my swim was a disappointing 1:54:27. I’m hoping to be closer to 1:45 here, but anything faster than 1:54:27 is an improvement.

T-1

At Texas my T-1 was 7:55. Not terrible considering I did a full kit change. I can hopefully do as well here, though the wetsuit may slow me down just a bit. I’m hoping to be in the same neighborhood.

Bike

The bike is usually my strength but it’s also the part that concerns me the most this time. I just haven’t had enough saddle time and I’m not feeling very powerful (SNEEZE) at the moment. Still, this should be an easier bike course than Texas, depending upon the winds, so I’m hopeful that I can manage a decent ride. I did a 7:02:53 in Texas but was on a pace to do much better before fading badly during the difficult last 15 miles or so.

At IMAZ I’m going to try and keep it steady. It’s a 3-loop bike course, the roads should be a little better than Texas and it’s not hilly. I’m going to try and average 16MPH, which should bring me in right on 7 hours. A couple of minutes faster than IMTX.

The plan is to use the first lap to get a feel for the course and warm up. I’ll try to keep it right at 16-17MPH. For the second lap, I’ll have a better feel for where (and if) I can push a bit. I might sneak the speed up a bit, but I need to keep the effort pretty easy. Then the final lap is just the final 37.5 mile push for home and I’ll play that one by feel. (remembering that I have to run a marathon when I get off the bike)

T-2

My T-2 at Texas was terrible. 23:45. Yes, really. It was hot, I was really sucking gas after the last 15 miles of the ride and I sat there in the tent, taking in fluids, breathing and trying to get my core temperature down a bit. I did a full kit change (and will again) and finally staggered out of the tent and headed out on the run. I don’t expect to be 3:00 at IMAZ, but I think 10:00 is realistic. Even if I do 15:00 I’m still 8 minutes faster than IMTX.

I’ll have another Red Bull in my T-2 bag to get the run started.

Run

At IMTX on a sprained ankle (did I mention that?) I limped to a 6:52:30 marathon. Better than I expected, to be honest. I ran a little bit of it, walked most of it. At IMAZ my ankle feels fine and while I don’t think I’ll go sub-5 on the run, I think I should be able to manage a much better run time.

My pace at IMTX was 15:44/mi. My goal at IMAZ is to try and keep my pace faster than 15:00. That shouldn’t be TOO tough, even in my “well-rested” condition. A 15:00 pace would bring me in at 6:33:16 which is almost 20 minutes faster than IMTX. Just that pace alone gets me almost to sub-16 if everything else goes only as well as it did at IMTX.

So…there we are. If I can go 1:45 on the swim, 8 minutes in T-1, 7 hours on the bike, 15 minutes in T-2, 6:33 on the run…that would be about a 15:41. I’d be THRILLED with that. So that leaves me about 19 minutes of “slop” time in case I’m a minute slow here or there.

Or maybe 16:59:59. That’ll be fun too.

Post-Race

Unfortunately my girl has to teach the next morning so unless I get a heckuva tailwind and actually finish in about 11 hours she won’t be able to stick around to the finish. (hence the two cars) So she’ll set off sometime fairly late and drive back up the hill to Flagstaff so she can get a few hours sleep before she has to teach her classes on Monday.

I’ll collect Keira and my bags and head back to the hotel. I’ll catch a bit of sleep, then in the mid-morning I’ll head back up the hill to Flagstaff myself.

And then?

I had sort of planned to do one 70.3 and one 140.6 per year going forward. At this point I’m seriously reevaluating that idea. I really need to sit down and figure out if I really have the motivation for that. I’m already registered for L.A. Marathon and I’m looking forward to that race. Be nice to just show up with some shoes and do a race that doesn’t last all day. Maybe I’ll go back to just doing marathon for a while. Or maybe I’ll do a 70.3 next year.

Right now I just don’t know. I’ll have to see how I feel coming out of IMAZ about whether I want to renew my pursuit of Ironman 140.6 or if I just want to step back and take some time off from Ironman for a while. Whatever it is needs to be fun. If I’m having to drag myself to training and dreading every mile of it that’s not really something I want to do. It’s not like I’m getting paid to do this. Maybe I’d rather spend my spring trail riding around Flagstaff with my wife instead of out hammering road bike workouts every weekend? We’ll see.

Thanks!

My Team Hawaii crew: Diana, SuperTrish, IronGene & Nick (who is also racing IMAZ) for their continuing inspiration and support.

Fellow IMAZ friends: Ron, Nicole, Dolores and the aforementioned Nick. All of whom I expect to finish ahead of me.